Echo
by DobbyLovesSocks
Summary: "The bad guy isn't going to hurt you, okay?" / "Promise?" / "Promise."


**For Quiddich League round one: Keepers had to write about a sibling relationship. Also f  
**

**Thanks so much to Sam for betaing!**

* * *

_Ginny: Age 4, Bill: Age 15_

"I was cold." The voice came as a squeak from under the bed, and Bill wasn't quite sure he heard it until a small nose peeked out from underneath the bedframe.

"No, you weren't."

Now he could see an entire face in the darkness, pouting. "How do _you _know?"

"It's the middle of July, Gin." He reached out and tugged a lock of her tangled hair. "And besides, people don't hide under their bed because they're cold. They do it because they're scared."

"Am not!" she insisted, crossing her arms.

"You're crying, Ginny. What's wrong?"

At those words, Ginny immediately started to retreat back under the bed until Bill reached out and grabbed her arm.

"Ginny, come out. It's okay. You're okay."

Eventually, the little girl wriggled out from under the bed and fell into her brother's lap.

"Had a bad dream," she sniffed.

"Oh? What happened in your dream?"

"W-well, I heard Mummy and Daddy talking 'bout... 'bout... something bad." Ginny trailed off.

"You dreamt about Mummy and Daddy talking?"

"_No,"_ she sighed, "that was real. Before bedtime. _Then_ in my dream... the bad guy come and hurted us."

Bill's arms tightened around his little sister, and when he spoke, he sounded alarmed. "Ginny, do you remember the name of the bad guy that Mummy and Daddy were talking about?"

Ginny's eyes widened as she shook her head. "Uh-uh. They called him 'You-Know-Who.' An' Daddy said he might come back and... hurt people. Hurt lotsa people. In my dream he hurted me."

"Oh, Gin," Bill whispered, stroking her hair. "The bad guy isn't going to hurt you, okay?"

"Promise?" Ginny sniffed, looking doleful.

"Promise," Bill repeated, and his sister beamed. "So, are you ready to go back to bed now?"

Ginny nodded and crawled under her blankets, and Bill slowly stood up and headed toward the door.

"Bill?"

"What is it, Gin?"

"How'd you know when I... bad dream?"

Bill could hear her words slurring together as she began to fall asleep, and a smile spread across his face. "Magic, Gin. You'll figure it out when you grow up." He expected to hear her usual cries of protest over the phrase "when you grow up", but all he received was a sleepy "mmhm" in response as she rolled over in bed. "Goodnight, Ginny."

As Bill walked out of the room, a twinge of guilt ran through his body. As he fell asleep, the word promise echoed in his ears again and again until it all blurred into one long drone.

* * *

_Ginny: Age 8, Bill: Age 19_

_"BILL!"_ The screech pierced through the house like a dagger through the muggy air.

"Ginny, what's wrong?" Molly asked urgently, dashing toward her daughter. But Ginny just shook her head and raced past her.

"BILL! Where is he?"

The man in question happened to be walking down the stairs, a lopsided grin on his face and beads of sweat on his forehead. "What's goin' on, Ginny?"

She shook her head furiously and grabbed him by the arm. She dragged him outside, only dropping her look of sheer terror to wrinkle her nose and grumble, "You're sweaty." Then, as if recalling a bad dream, her eyes widened again and her breathing sped up. Finally, Ginny sat down in the middle of a patch of grass and a tear slipped out of her eye. She swiped at it angrily, and Bill wrapped an arm around her.

"What's wrong, Gin?"

Ginny took a deep breath. "Okay. So Mum said I could take a walk to the park and play with some of the Muggle kids there. Because it does get awfully lonely being the only girl-"

"Oh, I dunno, I think Charlie could qualify as a girl with that new haircut."

"You should talk," she muttered. "_Anyway,_ I was at the park and some Muggle boy said he could beat me up. And I said no he couldn't, 'cause I could beat _him_ up, and he said he could, and he kept saying mean stuff and finally I told him that my brothers could do magic and make him explode! And he said I was lying and he would beat me up if I didn't show him your magic!"

"Oh, Merlin, Gin. You got yourself into quite a little dilemma here, didn't you?" He was still smiling, though, and Ginny gave him a guilty one in response.

"I know... I just didn't have anything else to say. And I couldn't let him beat me up! He didn't look that strong, anyway. I could've beaten him up, but if Mum found out..." She shuddered. "So I told him about magic."

"Well, as long as he didn't _see_ anything, you're not in trouble."

Ginny shook her head furiously. "Yes, I am! Because now if I don't show him magic - _real _magic - he's gonna beat me up. And he said his big brother would help.

"Shit, this kid isn't messing around."

"William Arthur Weasley!" Ginny giggled in a mocking tone. "Watch your language!"

He started tickling her, and Ginny collapsed in the grass, giggling uncontrollably. When she managed to wriggle out of his reach, she sat up again. "Really, Bill, what's gonna happen?"

"I won't let them hurt you, promise. I'll come to the park with you, if you want."

Ginny grinned. "Okay."

And he did. They went to the park the next and attempted to play football with some Muggle kids, and the day after that, they bounced a beach ball back and forth.

A few days later, Bill pulled his sister aside after breakfast. "See, Ginny? You're safe. That boy hasn't been back to the park all week. He was just making stuff up."

Ginny nodded slowly. "I'll go by myself today." When Bill didn't argue, she ran out the door, her shoes leaving faint imprints in the muddy grass.

When she came home a few hours later, she zipped upstairs and threw open the door to Bill's room, slamming it against the wall. She was cradling one side of her face and there was a thin line of blood on her lip. Her eyes narrowed as she looked at her brother and wiped at the blood on her lip. "You lied to me."

With a final glare, she stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind her. And the worst part was that Bill knew she was right.

* * *

_Ginny: Age 16, Bill: Age 27_

"You were right." For two days after the war, Ginny did not speak. When she finally did, those were the words out of her mouth.

"About what?" Although Bill's hair had been combed and his face washed, there was something about him that still looked almost dangerous, as if he were still standing in the middle of a battle.

"You said he wouldn't hurt me. And he didn't, not directly."

"Not directly," Bill repeated dryly. "He might've killed half the people you love, but..."

Ginny slapped him lightly on the arm. "You know what I mean. You actually lived up to you promise."

Now Bill looked confused. "I mean... I'm glad he didn't hurt you, Gin, of course I am, but when did I promise that?"

Her voice was low as she responded. "When I had that dream. You promised he'd never hurt me."

Bill scrunched up his face, as if trying to recall, and after a moment his eyes widened. "You remember that?"

"I remember all the promises you made. Including the one you broke."

Bill groaned. "Ginny, it's been, what, eight years? It was an honest mistake. Will you _ever_ let me live that down?"

She smirked at him, but her face suddenly turned serious again. "I started having the dreams again after that. I thought that if you broke that promise, you might break your others. I dreamt that he would break into the Burrow and attack us, and as I got older, I realised that you couldn't control whether or not he hurt me. You could try your best, and even that might not have be enough. And that's what scared me the most."

"But it _was_ enough," he said quietly, wrapping an arm around his sister. "I knew all along that I wouldn't let him hurt you, no matter what it took. I knew you were worth it, Gin. Don't ever forget that."

Ginny smiled, rolling her eyes. "Thanks." She paused for a moment and her lip began to tremble. "What it took was Fred. I'm not sure I _was_ worth it."

Bill took a sharp breath before shaking his head and pulling Ginny into his chest. "Don't say that," he whispered. "Don't think of it like that."

And even though Fred's name echoed in Ginny's head for weeks, "_you were worth it"_ started to force its way to the top.

She never forgot.


End file.
